A professor in the electrical and computer engineering department, researcher in the Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology and Director of Silicon Thin Film Applied Research, Karim’s involvement with CBB goes back to 2011 when he was part of the steering committee that garnered the grass roots support within the faculties of Science and Engineering for the center proposal to reach Senate for approval. He was one of the two founding Associate Directors for CBB and remained so until August 2017. During his time as a CBB Associate Director, Karim supported the Director and contributed to CBB’s efforts to engage a diverse set of faculty members across campus, hospital partners, industrial partners and other key stakeholders within the university and local community up until CBB became a university research centre. Since September 2017, Karim has served as the Associate Dean of Outreach, a unit within the Faculty of Engineering.
Karim envisions that CBB will continue to enable strategic research across the university to address global challenges in human health and help translate those research results rapidly into medical practice and meaningful health outcomes. Achieving this vision will help the University of Waterloo to cement a global reputation in the field of human health. To achieve this vision, CBB's mission is to:
- promote interdisciplinary research
- enable access to unique biorelated research, development and clinical resources
- cultivate relationships with key stakeholders in human health and medical practice.
The above initiatives, taken together, will help forge a clear path for Waterloo researchers looking to amplify their research's impact via translation to clinical outcomes. Karim is well suited to lead the Center based on his engineering and business education as well as his direct experience in taking a biomedical device technology from the university benchtop to the hospital bedside through his startup company, KA Imaging.
These are difficult times to step into a role of leadership. We particularly appreciate Professor Karim’s enthusiasm for taking up this role in times of intense change, noting that CBB will play a major role in a transformed future. We look forward to his guidance of CBB’s mission to promote interdisciplinary research, enable access to unique biorelated research, development and clinical resources, and cultivate relationships with key stakeholders in human health and medical practice, and how all of these priorities can be brought to bear to enable recovery in a post-COVID world.